44,714 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. $PANW Shares Acquired by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 952,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,714 shares during the period. Palo Alto Networks comprises about 0.5% of ProShare Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. ProShare Advisors LLC owned 0.12% of Palo Alto Networks worth $378,498,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Palo Alto Networks in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Palo Alto Networks during the second quarter worth $28,000. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 125.0% in the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 81 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Palo Alto Networks by 253.3% in the 1st quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 212 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.82% of the company’s stock.

Palo Alto Networks Trading Down 3.9%

NASDAQ:PANW opened at $365.87 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $372.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $269.89. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. has a 12 month low of $139.57 and a 12 month high of $432.33. The company has a market capitalization of $299.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 717.41, a PEG ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 1st. The network technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Palo Alto Networks had a net margin of 2.67% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 34.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. Palo Alto Networks has set its FY 2027 guidance at 4.160-4.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.960-0.980 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Palo Alto Networks, Inc. will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PANW. New Street Research set a $415.00 target price on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Mizuho set a $415.00 price target on shares of Palo Alto Networks and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Palo Alto Networks from $245.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $390.00 price objective (up from $371.00) on shares of Palo Alto Networks in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Thirty-nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $398.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Dipak Golechha sold 27,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.60, for a total transaction of $10,769,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 117,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,110,900. This trade represents a 18.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Josh Paul sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.68, for a total value of $336,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 72,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,085,821.12. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,210 shares of company stock valued at $20,823,029. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a global cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and digital infrastructure. Its offerings are designed to prevent cyberattacks, identify security risks, monitor activity, and support incident response across enterprise, government, and service-provider environments.

The company’s portfolio includes network security products such as next-generation firewalls and security operations tools; Prisma, its cloud security platform; and Cortex, a suite focused on endpoint protection, threat detection, security analytics, and automated response.